BBC - Human Planet S01E02 Deserts: Life in the Furnace (2011)

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BBC - Human Planet S01E02 Deserts: Life in the Furnace (2011)

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Human Planet is an eight-part landmark BBC natural history series. Filmed in high definition, Human Planet will be an epic record of man's survival in the most extreme environments. Each episode focuses on one environment and how the peoples and tribes who live there adapt to their surroundings: oceans, deserts, arctic, jungles, mountains, grasslands, rivers and cities.

We can survive for weeks without food, but only days without water: it is the essential element of life. Yet many millions of us live in parched deserts around the world. In the second episode of Human Planet, we discover how the eternal quest for water brings huge challenges - and ingenious solutions - in the driest places on Earth.

Battling through a sand storm in Mali, Mamadou must get his cows to a remote lake but desert elephants have arrived first. Can he find a safe way through the elephant blockade? Alone for weeks on end, Tubu women and children navigate the endless dunes of the Sahara. How does young Shede know where to find the last oasis, three days walk across the sea of sand? At the height of the drought we witness a spectacular frenzy: two thousand men rushing into Antogo Lake to catch the fish trapped by the evaporating water. When the rain finally arrives in the desert it's a time for flowering and jubilation - and love. The Wodaabe men of Niger put on make-up for an intoxicating courtship dance and beauty contest.

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BBC - Human Planet S01E02 Deserts: Life in the Furnace (2011)

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Oceans episode facts:

• A desert is defined as a place where less than 25cm (10 inches) of rain falls in a year.
• Deserts cover around a third of the Earth’s surface. Due to climate change and increased desertification, deserts are expanding faster than any other habitat on Earth.
• Temperatures soar to 58C in some of the hottest deserts, but there are cold deserts too like the Gobi in Mongolia where winter temperatures drop to –40C.
• Incredibly despite the harsh conditions around 300 million people live in deserts round the world.
• Sandstorms can build to 5000m in height covering areas the size of Britain, creating walls of sand so vast they can be seen from space.
• Sand from Saharan sandstorms can sometimes travel as far as the UK.
• Technically Antarctica is the driest desert in the world. The driest sand desert is the Atacama in Chile.